From Revivalism to Reformation

I originally wrote this short essay in 2006 for a Lutheran pastor interested in how I made the leap from Protestant Fundamentalism to historic Lutheranism. I've revised it a few times already and hope to continue expanding, revising, and polishing the essay as time goes on.

My journey to Lutheranism began in the fall of 2000, during my third year at Bob Jones University, a school known for its strict fundamentalist separatism. One of my roommates, an ardent Calvinist, suggested we discuss doctrine during our room Bible studies, and conversations quickly centered on the TULIP simplification of Calvinism. My other roommate, a staunch Arminian (infants don’t even have a sinful nature!) predictably opposed the Calvinist at every point. I, who had never before considered doctrine, was quickly caught in the middle.

But I was interested, I knew how to do research, and the library at BJU holds a treasure trove of theological thought. My examination of Calvinism, however, was only the beginning. I soon discovered that Christian doctrine is an organic whole, and what I believed in one area (say, Holy Communion) is inextricably linked to others (the Incarnation, to continue the example). But because I could not discern between form of Christianity in which I was reared (pietism and revivalism) and true substance of Christianity (faith in Christ crucified for my sins), my own faith began to fail as the ripples of doubt widened: first, the TULIP question; then, the dispensational premillenial interpretation of Scripture, followed closely by the legitimacy of evangelicalism and Protestantism; ending, finally, with the truth of the Christian faith itself, in any form.

So I, a student at Bob Jones University and a doubter of the Christian faith, continued to attend daily chapel services and serve as a campus spiritual leader even in the midst of growing doubt and despair. Yet I knew deep within my soul that something, somewhere would lead me aright again, and I must find it. I struggled on in my quest throughout the spring semester, devouring everything from the church fathers to Soren Kierkegaard to John Shelby Spong and Alister McGrath in my search for the truth.

Working and living on campus during the summer of 2001 allowed me to continue haunting the library in the evenings. Although doubt and despair still plagued me occasionally, my faith began to reform around those things I discovered the church has believed, taught, and confessed at all times and in all places. Although I didn’t yet realize it, I was really a nascent Lutheran as I began to describe myself to my friends as an “evangelical reformed catholic.”

That August I determined to visit a congregation associated with some branch of historic Christianity, be it Anglican, Lutheran, Catholic, Orthodox, whatever. It just so happened that the closest such congregation was the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, only a ten-minute walk from my dorm room. One humid Sunday morning I skipped the campus service and hiked down to the small church, where I discovered the fullness of faith, the beauty of the liturgy, and the assurance of Christ crucified for my sins for which I had been searching. I continued attending services occasionally (and secretly, as I may have been expelled if caught!) throughout the fall 2001 semester, my last at BJU. I attended several catechesis classes and once attended a seminar on St. Luke’s Gospel taught by Dr. Art Just of Concordia Theological Seminary.

When I returned home to Macon, Georgia that winter, I began attending and working for the Baptist church I had formerly frequented. My parents and my fiancé, Martha, taught at the Christian school associated with the congregation, and unless I really wanted to cause trouble, I had no other choice of church home. Martha and I were married in the summer of 2002, and the first worship service we attended the Sunday after our honeymoon was at the Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity, one of only two Lutheran congregations in Macon. Since we both worked for the Baptist church and school, we could only attend the Lutheran services occasionally. Occasionally soon grew into regularly, however, and on Easter Sunday, 2003, we were formally received into membership following weeks of catechetical instruction. We have not looked back.